Interest

Black Butler Film Casts Model Mizuki Yamamoto as New Maid

The producers of next year's live-action Black Butler film announced on Thursday that CanCam fashion magazine model Mizuki Yamamoto (Kirishima, Bukatsu Yameru-tte yo) will play an original character, a maid named Lin. Lin serves the family of Shiori Genpō, a descendant of the prestigious aristocratic family Phantomhive played by Ayame Gōriki (live-action Gatchaman, pictured below right).

Although she is hard-working and loyal to Shiori, Lin is a bit of a klutz and a scatterbrain. The character draws inspiration from a similarly clumsy maid named Meirin from Yana Toboso's original manga. Yamamoto herself is a well-known manga and cosplay fan, and she was a fan of the original Black Butler manga long before joining the film's cast.

While the original manga is set in 19th century England, this new film is set over 130 years later in 2020, in an Asian city where Western and Asian cultures freely intermingle. Since only males can take the reins of the Phantomhive family, Shiori dons male clothes and the name Kiyoharu to lead the massive Phantom Corporation. This will be first time that Gōriki plays a girl who assumes a male disguise.

Hiro Mizushima (Zettai Kareshi - Kanzen Muketsu no Koibito Robot, pictured below left) plays Sebastian Michaelis, a demonic butler with impeccable knowledge, manners, grace, cooking skills, martial arts, looks, and more. Like Ciel in the original manga, Shiori has a seal in her right eye as a symbol of her contract with Sebastian. Sebastian watches over and protects Shiori, but at a price — he consumes her soul.

Kentaro Otani (Nana) and Keiichi Satou (Tiger & Bunny, Karas, Asura) are co-directing the film. This will be the first time since Beck three years ago that Mizushima is starring in a film. Mizushima previously played another eminently capable butler inspired by a manga series, Mei-chan no Shitsuji.

The manga debuted in Square Enix's Monthly G Fantasy magazine in 2006, and its 16 volumes thus far have 15 million copies in print, including those published in 42 countries and territories. The manga already inspired a television anime series in 2008 and a stage play in 2009. It received the top prize in the shōnen manga category of France's Japan Expo Awards in 2010 and the Best International Manga Award in Germany's ANImagic in 2011.

Source: Comic Natalie

Images © 2014 Yana Toboso/Square Enix © 2014 Black Butler the Movie Production Committee

Update: Typos fixed. Thanks, unready